Slab Reader for iPadThe reading app your AI can read.
Read and highlight with your Apple Pencil, the way you would on paper. Then connect the assistant you already pay for — it reads your marks and replies, right under your highlights.
Free to read. Bring your own AI. Coming to the App Store.
Mark. Ask. It answers where you marked.
Most “AI reading” apps bolt a chatbot onto a viewer and route your documents through their own AI account. Slab Reader inverts that: your marks are the conversation, and your own assistant joins it.
Real recording — the pencil sweeps, the note goes in. 1 · Mark
Highlight it. Say what you think.
Sweep the pencil across a passage and it's marked. Add a note — a question, a doubt, a “check this”. Every highlight is anchored text with a colour, a note and a thread, stored with the document. That's what makes the rest possible.
In your own chat
“Look at the Action Book in Slab Reader and answer my notes.”
Your assistant lists the document, reads every highlight with its note, and writes back — in the thread, not the chat.
2 · Ask
From any chat you already have open.
Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity — on your account, your credits, your history. Or tap the sparkle in the app and it opens your assistant with the question already written. Nothing to paste; your AI fetches the document itself.
The reply lands under the highlight — threaded, badge-counted, waiting. 3 · Answered
It answers where you asked.
The reply appears in the app, under the exact highlight, with a notification when it lands. Reply back and it's a conversation — one that's stored with the document, not lost when a chat window closes.
Bring your own AI
Your AI connects to you. Not the other way round.
We don't run an AI. We don't hold your AI keys. We don't upload your documents into anyone's pipeline. Your assistant connects into your library over an open standard, with a key you can revoke in one tap — and reads only what you've chosen to keep there.
Your side
The assistant you already pay for
- Claude
- ChatGPT
- Perplexity
- any MCP client
Your account, your credits, your chat history.
Connects in over MCP + OAuth. Keys you can revoke, per assistant.
Our side
Your library
- Every document, highlight and note
- Readable by your AI — and writable
- Replies land under your highlights
We never hold AI keys, and never send your content to any AI provider.
No AI markup
You already pay for an assistant. We'd be reselling it back to you with worse prompts.
No lock-in
Switch assistants tomorrow. Your highlights, notes and threads stay exactly where they are.
No leak
The privacy promise is architectural, not a policy: there is no path from your library to an AI provider except the one you open.
A reading app first. A good one.
The AI loop only matters if you actually want to read here. So the reading is the part we obsessed over.
The pencil is a highlighter
Sweep text and it's marked in your pen colour — no mode, no menu. Fingers scroll, the pencil marks.
Seven colours that mean something
Filter and sort highlights by colour, per document or across the whole library.
Notes are threads
A note on a highlight is the start of a conversation. Your AI replies in it; you reply back.
Read aloud, word by word
Tap play and it reads to you, following along — and keeps going with the screen locked or your headphones in.
Folders and tags, both
Tags for what a document is about, as many as you like. Folders for where it lives, nested as deep as you want.
Articles from any link
Paste a link and it's pulled out clean — no ads, no clutter — filed as a web page you can read and mark up.
Built for reading at night
System, Light, Muted and Dark app themes, plus per-document page themes. Muted is the one you'll live in.
Tickable documents
Markdown task lists and PDF form boxes are live — tick with a finger or the pencil, and your AI sees it.
Free to read. Pay for the loop.
The reading app is complete and free, no account needed. A subscription adds the cloud and the AI connection, sized by how much you keep.
Free
£0
A complete reading app. No account.
- PDF and Markdown reading, on this iPad
- Apple Pencil highlights and notes
- Read aloud, word by word
- Folders and tags
- Works offline by nature
Reader
£1.99/month
500 MB of cloud library
- Everything in Free
- Library synced to every device
- Add articles from any link
- Connect your AI — it reads and replies
- Ask it from any chat, anywhere
Reader+
£2.99/month
1 GB of cloud library
- Everything in Free
- Library synced to every device
- Add articles from any link
- Connect your AI — it reads and replies
- Ask it from any chat, anywhere
Reader Pro
£4.99/month
5 GB of cloud library
- Everything in Free
- Library synced to every device
- Add articles from any link
- Connect your AI — it reads and replies
- Ask it from any chat, anywhere
UK prices, billed through the App Store. First month free on monthly plans. If you stop paying, your library stays readable — you just can't add to it. The AI connection uses the assistant subscription you already have.
What it's for
The production desk
Run sheets, riders, venue specs. Tick tasks off the PDF with the pencil, highlight the questions, and let your AI answer them in place overnight.
The research reader
Load ten papers, highlight in colour code, note the doubts. Ask your assistant to cross-check the claims you flagged and reply under each one.
The report loop
Your AI drafts a report and sends it straight to your library. You mark what's wrong; the next draft answers every note. No email attachments.
The deal reader
Highlight the clauses that smell wrong; your AI replies with what they mean and what to push back on. The document never enters anyone else's AI account.
Questions
Is my library used to train AI?
No. We never send your content to any AI provider. Your own assistant reads your library only when you've connected it — and you can revoke it any time.
Do I need an AI subscription?
The reading app is complete without one, and free. The AI loop works with the assistant you already have — Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, or anything that speaks MCP.
What's free, exactly?
Everything about reading: import PDFs and Markdown, highlight with the pencil, notes, read aloud, folders and tags — all on your iPad, no account. A subscription adds cloud sync across devices, adding articles from links, and the AI connection.
What happens if I cancel?
Your library stays readable, syncable and exportable on every device and to your connected AI. You can't add new documents until you subscribe again — and we never delete it for you.
What's MCP?
Model Context Protocol — the open standard AI assistants use to connect to tools. It's how your assistant becomes a member of your library instead of a place you paste text into.
Do I need an Apple Pencil?
No — select text with a finger and tap Highlight. The Pencil just makes it feel like paper: sweep and it's marked, no menu.
iPhone?
iPad first. iPhone follows.
Be first in the library.
Slab Reader is coming to the App Store. Leave an email and we'll send exactly one message — the day it's out.